"All the stars have left the sky..." No more Amahl. No more Night Visitors. Tonight's performances were the last. I'm sure the rehearsal withdrawals will start soon. What will I do with my time? Oh, well. School will start again soon, and I won't have any free time at all. I'm hoping I can be in La Traviata this Spring, though. That's a bit of a step up from Amahl, but I think I can handle it, if there are no major time conflicts.

School's Out! Not forever, of course, but for a few weeks. Next week is still going to be crazy. There are four rehearsals for Amahl and the Night visitors next week, all from 5 to 10PM. 20 hours. I don't even work that many hours per week these days! C'est la vie. At least it's in Athens this time.

I've seen two films this weekend, "I Am Legend" and "The Golden Compass." Funny. One is controversial for it's supposed atheistic agenda, and the other is loaded with Christian symbolism.

"The Golden Compass" was no problem for a heathen like me to enjoy. I suppose it could have been a lot better. The editing was a little shaky, and the story definitely could have been more cohesive. Some of the more interesting ideas were a little under-developed. Also, some of the acting seemed a little half-hearted at times, although there was no shortage of outstanding actors. There was plenty of eye candy, though, what with the airships and daemons and talking, drinking, brawling polar bears. I will say that this film is probably a bit heavy for the average child. I'm not sure what age group the books were aimed at, but this is not what I'd consider a kid's film. It has a serious body count, and the script is a bit verbose and philosophical (again, for something that looks like it's aimed at kids). I think it would have been a better film if they'd given it to someone like Terry Gilliam or Guillermo del Toro, someone who could have taken it further in that direction, given it a darker edge. And yes, I can see why some religious organizations are upset about the film. The story is more or less an allegory for the struggle between religious teachings and scientific progress, if I understood correctly. Fine. From the POV of an agnostic, it still looks like the same old good vs. evil story, kind of like Narnia (with its Christian "agenda?"), but a little more three-dimensional. I just hope they get a real director for the sequels.

"I Am Legend," on the other hand, should please a few Christians, especially those who like explosions and post-apocalyptic vampire-mutants (fans of the old testament?). For those who don't know, it's the third film based on the book "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson. The first was the eerie, campy Vincent Price film "The Last Man on Earth." (George Romero actually said that his "Night of the Living Dead" was partially inspired by that film.) Next came "The Omega Man" with Charleton Heston. It wasn't very scary, but it did have some style, and Anthony Zerbe was excellent as the leader of the mutants. Now we have "I Am Legend" starring Will Smith and a whole lot of unnecessary CGI. Unlike in the other versions, the zombie-vampire-mutants don't talk at all here, although they can reason a bit. They're more like the rage-infected "zombies" from "28 Days Later." They're also computer-generated, for some reason. So are the deer and lions. And lab rats. And maybe one of the cars. But not the dog. At least they didn't pull a "Beowulf" and use a CGI capture of Will Smith. He actually gets to do some acting in this film. I like the focus in this version on the insanity that comes with loneliness and isolation. The other versions didn't take the idea very far. Vincent Price just seemed a little depressed, and Charleton Heston just seemed a little annoyed. Will Smith actually gets to go a bit insane, and he does it well. Then, of course, he finds religion.

Bel paese... I took my Italian final tonight. It was pretty easy, except for the fact that the words from Amahl and the Night Visitors kept popping into my head..."Mi piacciono gli spaghetti - this is all we shepherds can offer you!"

Only the biology final is left, and then I can relax until next semester. Well, there is one more run of Amahl, but that should be fairly easy now that I know it backwards and forwards. Plus, I don't have to leave town for this run. I just hope they find more tenors. Half the time, I'm the only tenor in the chorus. That's a lot of weight to pull.

Amahl and the Night Visitors I just got back from Greensboro, Georgia, where I spent four days rehearsing and performing in Amahl and the Night Visitors. I jumped into it at the last minute after my vocal instructor got me into a singing seminar for UGA voice students. The professor hosting the seminar stopped me on the way out and asked me if I wanted to be in the chorus in Amahl. "Hell yes!" I thought as I said "let me check my schedule." I love it so far, except that I had to stay in a motel in Greensboro without much to do in between shows. Also, I couldn't find any coffee in Greensboro. My caffeine addiction wasn't too happy about that. Furthermore, the performance was in a barn. It's a very NICE barn, the kind that apparently cost millions of dollars to build, but it's still a barn, not exactly designed for performance of an opera. The lighting wasn't very good, and I ended up falling off the makeshift stage once before they put some brightly-colored tape down. Still, the thrill of the performance outweighed all of that, and I love the cast and the rest of the chorus.

There's another run at the Classic Center here in Athens the weekend after next, which should go more smoothly. Real stage, real green room, etc.

AmahlWhere is your home?

BalthazarI live in a black marble palacefull of black panthers and white doves.And you little boy, what do you do?

AmahlI was a shepherd, I had a flock of sheep.But my mother sold them, sold them,now there are no sheep left.I had a black goat who gave me warm sweet milkBut she died of old age, old age,now there is no goat left.But mother says that now we shall both gobegging from door to door…Won’t it be fun?

I did enjoy Beowulf. It was surprising, beautiful and occasionally hilarious, although most of the people in the theater weren't laughing when I was laughing, even though the humor was intentional. The voice talent was very good. I assume the actors would have done a fine job physically, but we'll never know, will we?

That brings me to my only big complaint about Shrek 4...I mean Beowulf. I'm not sure who decided it would benefit from the all-CGI treatment, but I think it was a mistake. I'd much rather see the actual actors, even if the backdrop is mostly CGI (like in 300 or Sky Captain) than what looks like cartoon characters modeled after famous actors. I know Grendel had to be CGI, but couldn't Beowulf have just been Ray Winstone (assuming he agreed to get in shape for the role)?

Anyway, I'd still recommend it for fans of epic fantasy/action films. Just be warned that it's not a kid film. There's lots of blood and guts, and some nudity, sort of.

Success! I just repaired the brakes on my bike (bicycle, that is, not a "hawg" or anything). I feel like a master mechanic, if a master mechanic is what it takes to unscrew a bolt, pull a wire tight and screw back the bolt. Now maybe that big hill on Baxter won't feel like the "Scream Machine" anymore.

Sono stanco. Ho bisogno di caffè. I just finished writing an Italian paper describing my apartment. Like everything else, this little dump sounds much better when described in a Romance language.

I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D last night with my sister and friends. I couldn't help singing along with the movie, which was okay, since there were only a few other people outside our group in the theater, and they were all much noisier than we were.

Moving along... Looks like I'll be doing a recital in mid-November. My instructor said I could wait until later if I didn't feel I was ready, but I guess I have to start somewhere. I'll be doing one or two Italian songs, "Sebben Crudele" and/or "Gia il Sole dal Gange." I've been performing with the Glee Club, but it's been a long time since I've done anything solo. I'm not too worried, though. The tuxedo is like armor. It makes me feel invincible.

Testing, testing... Okay, I've been away from LJ for a long, long time. Does anyone still remember me? Better yet, do I still have any LJ friends after disappearing for a couple of years?

I went through what I will call, for the lack of a better phrase, some f#$%ed up sh^% in 2005, and I ended up moving and starting over, in the process losing contact with just about everyone I'm not related to by blood. I won't go through the details now, but suffice it to say that things are a whole lot better now, and I'm a real person again instead of some tragic fictional character of my own making.

Happy news, the kind that breaks my heart... Miranda gave me a call. She told me about the twists and turns her life has been taking. My wife is getting married. We finally have a real incentive to get divorced. The upside is that Miranda and I will finally have separate lives, something we decided on four years ago. The downside is that I don't believe it, and I don't trust it. Miranda and I grew apart. We didn't work out, and we'll never be together. Fine. That doesn't mean I don't care about her. She's marrying a cop from Newnan, Georgia. He does the yard work, and she cooks the meals and cleans the house, in a suburb about an hour south of Atlanta. That is NOT the Miranda that I know.

The supermodel is back, as beautiful and vacuous as ever. When I saw her again, the ultra-male part of me went into overdrive (the creatures from the "id," that base instinct we inherited from our reptile brethren), based on her stunning appearance. Then we talked. She's not stupid. There's a big difference between stupid and shallow. I agree with Wes. Why on Earth are Amy and Jennifer best friends? Amy, Wes' wife, is a great friend of mine, and one of the wittiest and most intelligent people I've ever met, and I'm glad she and my best friend are married. Jennifer is her best friend. Incredibly gorgeous, but lacking something in sheer humanity. It's hard to place. I'm not saying she's a killer robot or anything, but it has been a bit difficult to sleep for the past couple of days with her in the next room:/

You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat.

I guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff writer. Your sense of humor takes the most effort to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion.

I had the strangest dream last night. Normally, I don't remember my dreams, or don't care to, because they're either tedious or disturbing. This one struck a weird chord, though. First of all, it was a double feature, the intermission being me waking up in a fright, getting a drink of water, and falling asleep again, only to fall back into the same damn dream!

It was a very simple dream. My mother and I were visiting some quaint little town, and we walked down a hill to a strange kind of grassy valley surrounded by stone slabs, with a kind of spire at the very end. There were mountains in the distance. It was beautiful. When we got to a certain point, though, the hill seemed to rotate downwards (I mean the whole thing actually moved), and I thought I was going to fall. This is where it begins to make no sense, of course. This is also where it scared the hell out of me. I laid down with my back to the ground and my heels digging into the dirt as the steep hill started to become a cliffside. The hill stopped moving before I could completely slide off. I looked up, and my mother was just admiring the view, although she was at the same perilous angle I was, except face-down! There was also another woman a little higher up on the hill, and my mother seemed to want me to go and talk to her, but I was a little preoccupied with the idea of falling to my doom, and I was amazed that both my mother and that other woman didn't seem to worry, even though they were both lying on their bellies facing down a very steep hill which seemed to be moving. It was as if the laws of gravity were changing, but only for me, and definitely not in my favor. Maybe I was in M. C. Escher's private Hell. The hill moved again, and I lost my footing. That's when I woke up for the intermission.

I woke up, told myself it was just a dream, drank some water, and went back to see the ending.

The hill had stopped moving, and my mother and the mystery woman were gone. I managed to edge my way back to a place where I could stand up, close to the top of the hill/cliffside. Then I noticed my mother and mystery girl walking down the side of the cliff, and I mean walking perpendicular to the cliff face. I also saw that there were some new partitions put up to keep people from falling (heh!). I got dizzy and fell right over them.

Of course, I woke up in a panic before I hit the ground. (End of movie) I've had many dreams about falling onto, into, or out of things, but I don't remember ever hitting the ground.

Anyway, freaky dream. This one stayed with me all day. I think I'll keep it.

It's been a bad, mad, bad, long day. I woke up with a headache, and it grew hentai tentacles before lunch-time. In the middle of this, while I was shoveling rock and sand in the hot Georgia sun, a Thomas hauler (a CDL-certified guy hired to drive rock and sand from one location to another) came up to me, while I was gathering aggregates for various tests, and started shouting at me. I didn't know this guy from Adam (ain't it grande to plunder Christian mythology without even being religious?), but I actually thought he wanted to fight me! He was cursing and screaming, and I was trying to calm him down. I'm pretty sure he mistook me for somebody else, but I used my kung fu to quiet him. Hah! I'm pulling an "Italo Calvino" here! I didn't fight him, and I wouldn't have, even though he looked like he was about to take a swing. I calmed him. He was saying that I, more than once, have driven around him to leave the yard, right around his "blind spot." I think he was talking about one of my coworkers, and I told him so. I always wait for the haulers to leave before I do. He had the wrong guy, and I resented the way he approached me. I'm proud of the way I handled it, though. We were both laughing by the time we parted. His name is Gregg, and he seems to be okay. He probably just had a bad day. I'm sure he could tell I was having a very bad day.

5. Major Motoko Kusanagi, from the anime Ghost in the Shell. Yeah, I know she's a cartoon cyborg. Love has crossed stranger boundaries. So has sex. Just ask anyone from the deep south.

4. Elsa Fremont, from a short detective story by Dashiell Hammett called The First Thin Man (the earlier version of The Thin Man). Hammett's description of her caused my imagination to run wild. "She had remarkably beautiful legs."

3. Kathy Gale, from the British TV show The Avengers (played by Honor Blackman, who was Pussy Galore in the James Bond film Goldfinger). Everyone else wants to shag her successor, Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), but I find Gale much more appealing.

2. Nora Charles, from the Dashiell Hammett novel The Thin Man, played in the film by Myrna Loy, possibly the most beautiful woman in the history of the world. Charming, gorgeous, witty, sexy. What else can I say?

1. The Princess (can't remember her name) from The Pink Panther, played by Claudia Cardinale, the woman that Brigitte Bardot named as her successor. The scene with her on the bear-skin rug did it. That's the reason she's #1.